Not generally, cynicAAl. Not even if the Manhattan-residing, European-American is named Jose Chistopher ____.

It's really not that simple.

I have seen Saudi visa applications submitted by US citizens that were accepted with the religion listed as a variety of made-up things or with some non-Christian actual affiliations; and they mainly got the visas issued without issue and the associated application forms filed without altering the entries submitted by the visa applicants.

I am looking forward to finding out what people are doing vis-a-vis the Indian government's visa applications that request religious affiliation disclosure. [Unlike with Saudi Arabia, India formally has no state religion and there is a lot of freedom of religion in some ways.]

I'd tell the truth, although I'd be tempted to declare myself a frisbeetarian.

Mike

OK, now I am curious. What other countries ask this?

Saudi Arabia
India

Raelian

"NONE". Including on a form that only had a tick-box option of pre-approved religions (and 'none' wasn't one).

Never been asked about it, and I can't say it has ever been very important to me.

You'd better be one, if you write it. First, you'll then have to specify which sect you belong to - I'd rather not wager on the "incorrect" one. Second, one must sign a paper as part of the visa application that you understand that lying about your religion (among other things) can lead to very inconvenient circumstances.

Whereas I don't see the Saudis examing the depth of your Christian belief, I'm quite sure they have a few specialist when it comes to the followers of Mohammed...

Of course I always wonder if "pedestrian" would be an acceptable option :)

They're mostly asking because access to Mecca is restricted to Muslims, and your visa won't be valid for this area if you aren't one. I don't know if they examine your faith in depth beside this administrative problem. They must get Muslims workers of all denominations with a work visa, and even more on a Hajj visa.

With the UK having 10,000 or so people claiming to be of Jedi faith in a public census, who knows? :)

More likely based on your appearance.

Definitely not generally based on appearance.

What you suggest is not what happened at the Saudi embassy in DC in the years where I was well connected with Saudi diplomats in the area and reasonably well connected with those running the Saudi intelligence establishment -- rather recent years at that. If there is any evidence of a change in the past couple of years, it probably would be a surprise even to the current Saudi ambassador to the US.

There are many millions of ethnic European-looking muslims, and at least tens of thousands of ethnic European-American muslims living in the US. Thousands of such persons apply for Saudi visas, many of them with names that most Americans and Canadians and ordinary Saudis wouldn't recognize as being names of muslims. Yet there generally is no religious identity adjustment to their applications either.

I'm no fan of Saudi Arabia -- and I put the Saudi government in the same category as the den of snakes that is the the Pakistani government -- but at least things are actually rather obvious with their reactionary ways that making up stuff to criticize the Saudi government is just a waste since there are various legitimate grounds upon which to criticize Saudi Arabia without imagining things.

They have no reliable, routine way to testing religious affiliation of muslims. I have not heard of them asking male visa applicants to "whip it out" to do a circumcision check or doing a stomach contents examination to figure out if a person willfully eats pork and drinks alcohol or not.

There are two blond haired, blue eyed muslim girls at one of my companies.
Both are from Bosnia, and both hard core muslims.

"Don't judge a book by its cover"

The checks you suggest wouldn't flush out any Mossad agents, either :D

Still, I would not suggest getting a KSA visa under falsely stating religion as Moslim when in fact one is not.

While it's true that acces to Mekka (and Medinah?) is restricted to people of the Mohamedian persuasion, I think religion is not mentioned in the visa itself. (hajj visas are a totally different issue, I'm talking normal business visas)

Suggesting it or not, people filing for Saudi visas have claimed things that are not true in order to get a Saudi visa (including for purposes of the religious tourism visas) and most have apparently gotten away with it. To get caught would require really being an idiot or a glutton for punishment. :eek:

At least in some areas and at some times, Saudi visas have asked for religious identity even when the purpose of the intended visit had nothing to do with religious tourism visas (for the Hajj or otherwise). And those who indicated religion as Judaism when applying for various kinds of Saudi visas would often see the results of Saudi bigotry in action and be refused. Not always, but often.

Indian visa applications in recent years definitely ask for religion at least in India's largest OECD tourist source countries -- something that was not true for most of India's post-Independence history.

Sure - and as long as it's not Moslim, I don't see any special issues with that. Of course to each his/her own pleasures, but somehow I see a visit to KSA already an extreme(ly boring) sport without the need to spice it up claiming to be Moslim.

AFAIK they always ask, part of the standard application.